Panama Don Julian Washed Geisha

About Panama Don Julian Washed Geisha

Arrived by air in vacuum boxes early August 2024, new crop. This season we favored Finca Don Julian's Washed Geisha.  We had the opportunity to cup both Washed and Natural, but it was the Washed that really got our attention for clarity and florality. This coffee is also a good value for a high quality Geisha from Panama.

We visited with producer Annie Burneskis in June. Her farm is really a special place we have visited a couple of times during the recent past.  It is her intention to keep the farm in as natural a state as possible. Separately, in the town of Boquete, she has contructed a new processing building and drying greenhouses for the final preparation of coffee fruit grown her farm.

As mentioned above, we were lucky enough to visit this farm a couple of times. Incredible coffee is grown here, and on arrival it becomes clear that the extraordinary taste of the coffee is the direct result of the exraordinary characteristics of the farm. At first perusal you might assume that you were walking through a nature preserve, where coffee trees are surrounded by other plants and enormous shade trees tower above. It is no accident that the farm feels this way; the owner, Mrs. Burneskis, thinks the farm should be kept in a natural state. She has a level of respect and connectivity for the coffee plants that really comes to light when you walk through the sprawling greenery. Finca Don Julian is located about 1600 to 1850 meters above sea level in the subregion of Boquete called Horqueta, and coffee, of several varieties, grow in rich, black volcanic soil. The growing area, being in a protected tropical rainforest, gives the coffee a unique flavor, great acidity and bold body.

Can you find the coffee trees in this preserve?

This lot is 100% Geisha, an heirloom varietal from Ethiopia that produces a blue-green elongated coffee bean that is especially aromatic and floral. Price Peterson, who owns and is the patriarch of Hacienda Esmeralda in Panama, experimented by planting it some years ago along with a broader group of varietals. The result was the rediscovery of a great cultivar with extreme fruitiness and floral scents and flavors, but with balance and finesse not seen in other coffees. Coffee farmers in other countries soon followed suit, and the varietal regularly takes home awards in Cup of Excellence competitions held throughout the world. This is a Washed processed coffee - the skin is removed and fermetation allows the mucillage to break down, followed by washing. The coffee 'beans', actually the seeds, which are each encased in their parchment husks at this point, are spread out on raised tables to slowly dry in the sun or in brightly shaded covered patios.

View of the Horqueta Mountains with the Baru Volcano in the distance

• Farm: Finca Don Julian
• Producer: Heakyung Kang Burneskis
  
• Province: Chiriqui
• District: Boquete
• Subregion:  Horqueta
  
• Altitude: 1850 meters above sea level
• Coffee variety: Geisha
• Processing: Washed
• Drying: Raised beds
  

Cup Characteristics:  A clear, clean and pure example of washed Geisha. Lots of floral notes including jasmine, hyacinth and plumeria.  Also present are lemon and lemongrass and a decided amount of bergamot. A well balanced and delicious Geisha.

Roasting Notes: Like most dense, hard bean and delicate coffees, we always suggest keeping it to the lighter roast side, maybe midway between first and second crack. This maximizes nuances, in this case the sweet acidity and floral Geisha notes that further roasting will diminish. Geisha needs to be roasted enough to retain body but not to the point where florals begin to disappear.